Understanding AI in Hive
Hive’s AI is built around Buzz, your in-workspace assistant. Buzz helps you draft content, summarize work, create and update actions, build dashboards, run workflows, and — with the AI-Enabled Workspace add-on — take action directly inside Hive using your existing project context.
This article explains how Buzz works, what it can access, how it adapts to your preferences, and where your data goes.
How to Use Buzz
Buzz is Hive’s AI assistant. You’ll find it as the purple Buzz button at the top of your Hive view, inside Action Cards, Notes, Hive Mail, and other AI-powered apps.
Buzz is not a generic chatbot bolted onto Hive. It is designed to understand workspace context — projects, actions, messages, notes, and connected integrations — and help you move work forward.
Buzz has two layers. If you elect to use Buzz Chat in your workspace as a one-off AI assistant, you'll get 30 messages/questions for free.
Once you exceed 30 messages, you'll be able to enable Buzz's full capability through our AI Enabled workspace add on.
What counts as a "Buzz message"?
Each prompt you send in Buzz Chat counts toward your monthly limit when you're on the capped plan. You'll see a banner like:
"You have X of 30 Buzz messages left this month without Buzz AI."
When you hit 30, Buzz stops accepting new messages until you Enable AI Workspace (purchase the add-on) or your quota resets the following month.
What changes when you purchase Buzz AI?
Enabling Buzz AI Assistant (AI-Enabled Workspace) removes the 30-message cap and unlocks the deeper AI layer:
Unlimited Buzz Chat messages
Workspace-aware action-taking (create/update actions, dashboards, workflows)
Hive Mail AI features
Admin controls, audit trail, custom workspace AI rules
Buzz Chat is the conversational interface. Buzz Assistant (on the Apps page) is the workspace app that enables and governs Buzz at the workspace level. When your workspace is AI-enabled, Buzz can do much more with the data you already have permission to see.
How does AI in Hive work?
At a high level, here’s what happens when you ask Buzz to do something:
You send a prompt — in Buzz Chat, an Action Card, Notes, Hive Mail, or another AI surface.
Buzz gathers context — only from information you already have access to in Hive (and connected integrations, if enabled). Buzz cannot see private projects, restricted notes, or data outside your permission scope.
Buzz processes your request — using large language models (LLMs) from third-party AI providers, orchestrated by Hive’s AI layer (HiveMind).
Buzz returns a result or takes action — depending on your plan and settings, this might be a draft for you to review, a summary, a newly created action, a dashboard widget, or a workflow update.
You stay in control — for sensitive actions (like sending email), Buzz typically prepares drafts or suggestions for your approval rather than acting without consent.
Where Buzz appears in Hive
Buzz Chat — general assistant for questions, drafts, and planning
Action Cards — write descriptions, summarize threads, suggest next steps
Notes — generate and edit content; create AI images from prompts
Hive Mail — organize inbox, suggest replies, draft emails (you approve before sending)
Dashboards (AI Dashboards) — create, interpret, and refine charts and reports
App Workflows — Buzz can help create and update automated workflows
Goals & activity — summarize recent workspace activity and progress
How does Buzz “learn”?
This is one of the most common questions. There are two different ideas of “learning” — and Hive treats them differently.
Buzz does not train public AI models on your workspace data
Your workspace data is not used to train third-party AI models.
When you interact with Buzz:
Requests are processed to fulfill your prompt in real time.
Hive uses enterprise agreements with AI providers designed to prevent your data from being stored or used for model training by those providers.
This is a key reason many teams prefer Buzz over pasting workspace content into external tools like ChatGPT.
Buzz does adapt to you through preferences and optional features
Buzz can get smarter for you inside Hive through settings you control:
AI Memories
Teach Buzz your preferences under AI → General → AI Memories.
Examples:
“Always use bullet points in status updates.”
“When summarizing, include blockers and next steps.”
“Don’t archive emails from @client.com.”
Memories apply to Buzz Chat and email next steps.
Optional inbox learning (Hive Mail)
Under Hive Mail → Buzz AI settings, you can enable “Allow Buzz to learn from your inbox.”
When on, Buzz may learn from messages you skip or interact with to improve future suggestions (archiving, labeling, next steps). Off by default. You choose whether to turn this on.
Workspace rules (admins)
Workspace admins can configure shared Buzz behavior under Workspace Settings → Buzz AI, including rules that apply across the team alongside personal AI Memories.
Feedback
Use thumbs up/down on Buzz suggestions. Combined with Memories, this helps Buzz align with how you want work handled — without training a global model on your data.
What Buzz can access
Buzz only accesses information you already have permission to view in Hive:
Projects, actions, sections, labels, statuses, assignees, comments, custom fields
Notes and documents you can open
Messages and activity metadata needed for workflows and auditing
Calendar events (when you request calendar-related actions)
Connected integrations (only if enabled and within your access scope)
Buzz cannot access:
Private projects you can’t view
Restricted notes or documents
Data from integrations that aren’t connected
Anything outside your user permission scope
Buzz respects the same visibility and permission rules as the rest of Hive.
What happens to your prompts and responses
Stage | What happens |
In Hive | AI-generated actions and updates are recorded in workspace activity history for transparency and auditing. |
Processing | Your prompt and relevant context are sent securely to AI providers to generate a response. Communications use TLS encryption. |
Third-party LLM providers | Process requests under Hive’s enterprise privacy terms — not for training, not retained by providers. |
After the request | Results return to Hive. Buzz does not persist your conversations with third-party providers beyond what’s needed to complete the request. |
Data storage and security
Hive’s platform security applies to AI the same as everything else:
Encrypted in transit and at rest
SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, and CCPA aligned practices
Not indexed by search engines — workspace content isn’t publicly crawlable
SSO support — Okta, Azure AD, SAML (Enterprise Security)
Audit trail — Buzz interactions can be logged and reviewed by admins
Full data erasure — available for organizations on request (Enterprise Security)
For regulated or sensitive work, use private projects, restrict integrations, and add approval steps before high-impact automations.
What can Buzz do?
Content & communication
Draft action descriptions, status updates, meeting agendas, and emails
Summarize long action threads, notes, and workspace activity
Generate images from prompts (royalty-free, for decks, docs, etc.)
Proof and refine copy inside Notes and Action Cards
Project & task management
Create, update, and reassign actions
Apply labels, statuses, and custom fields
Restructure projects and sections
Search or replace field values across work
Reporting & insights
Build and update Dashboards and widgets
Pull workspace statistics and progress toward goals
Convert data into visual summaries and narrative reports
Automation
Create and edit App Workflows from natural language
Run scheduled summaries and recurring AI tasks (AI-Enabled Workspace)
Email (Hive Mail)
Suggest next steps when you open a thread
Draft replies in Gmail or Outlook (you send)
Optionally auto-archive low-priority mail (off by default)
Optionally learn from inbox behavior (off by default)
Important: Buzz helps create email drafts but does not send email on your behalf unless you explicitly enable specific auto-actions and approve the result.
Admin and workspace controls
Enabling AI
Buzz Chat — available on Hive Teams plans
AI-Enabled Workspace — enable from Apps → AI-Enabled Workspace → Enable
Settings admins should know
Workspace Settings → Buzz AI — shared rules and team-level behavior
Enterprise Security app — SSO, data erasure, advanced access controls
Permissions — Buzz inherits user-level access; tighten project/note visibility for sensitive work
Integrations — only connect systems you want Buzz to reason over
Best practices for using AI in Hive
Start with clear prompts — include project name, timeframe, and desired output format.
Review before publishing — treat Buzz output as a first draft, especially for client-facing or executive content.
Use AI Memories — save time by encoding preferences once instead of repeating them every prompt.
Keep sensitive data in restricted spaces — use private projects and note permissions for confidential work.
Avoid putting secrets in prompts — don’t paste passwords, API keys, or regulated identifiers (SSN, health data, etc.).
Use approval workflows — for high-impact automations, require human review before Buzz acts broadly.
Give feedback — thumbs up/down and Memory updates improve Buzz for your workflow over time.
Frequently asked questions
Does Buzz replace my team?
No. Buzz handles repetitive drafting, summarization, and data gathering so your team can focus on decisions and collaboration.
Can Buzz access data I can’t see?
No. Buzz is permission-aware and limited to what your account can access.
Can I turn AI off?
Workspace admins control whether the AI-Enabled Workspace is active. Individual features (like inbox learning or auto-archive) have their own toggles, most off by default.
How is Buzz different from using ChatGPT directly?
Buzz already knows your Hive context (projects, actions, permissions) and can take action inside the product. It also runs under Hive’s security and privacy controls rather than a personal consumer AI account.
Who can see what Buzz did?
AI-generated changes appear in normal workspace activity history. Admins with appropriate access can audit Buzz interactions depending on your plan and settings.